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Directions: Follow along with the class and highlight main ideas. From pages 95-100

Notes Outline: Ancient Egyptian Religion, Mummification, and Pyramids

Chapter 4

Section 2

Religion

•Egyptians practiced polytheism-

•The worship of many gods

•Egyptian officials expected ALL Egyptians to worship the same gods during the Old Kingdom

•Temples collected payments from worshippers and the government

•Payments allowed temples to grow influential

Egyptian Gods/Goddesses

•Specific cities become known for worshipping specific gods

City / God/Goddess
Memphis / Ptah
Abydos / Osiris
Heliopolis / Re

•Familes worshipped household gods

•At shrines in their homes

Gods/Goddesses:

•Re (Ra)- sun god, chief god

•Helped crops grow

•Sometimes combined with other gods: Amon-Re

•Osiris- god of the underworld, harvest, eternal life

•First mummy

•Ruled over dead with wife Isis

•Isis- goddess of magic, motherhood, marriage

•Protector of women

•Ruled over dead with husband Osiris

Gods/Goddesses cont.

•Maat/Ma’at- goddess of truth, justice, harmony, and balance

•Represented by an ostrich feather

•Heart weighed against the feather of Maat

•If heart & feather balanced, the person entered the underworld

•Anubis-god of the dead and mummification

•Guardian of cemeteries

•Represented by the jackal

•Oversaw mummification process

•Ptah-god of creation, craftsmen, and artisans

•Created the world and everything in it

•Represented by the Apis bull

•Horus-god of living pharaoh, law, young men, war, sky

•Represented by the falcon

•Son of Osiris and Isis

•Thoth-god of knowledge, secrets, writing, and scribes

•Represented by the ibis (bird with long thin beak)

•Messenger of the gods and inventor of writing

Afterlife

•Afterlife- life after death

•Happy place - everyone was young and healthy

•At death a person’s ka became a spirit

•Ka- life force

•Ka remains linked to body

•cannot leave burial site

•had the same needs as the living

•Needed to eat, sleep, and be entertained

•The dead’s family provided for the ka

•Relatives filled tombs with food/drinks, furniture, clothing, tools, weapons, jewelry

Belief:

•Mummies- specially treated bodies wrapped in cloth

•Purpose is to keep ka from suffering

•If body decayed ka would be lost

•Egyptians embalmed bodies to preserve them

•Process called mummification

Mummification Process:

Step 1: Who got mummified?

•Only the elite could be mummified

•Elite- people of wealth and power

•Examples: Pharaoh, vizier, high priests, nobles

•Lower Class- buried dead in shallow graves

•Desert heat, dry sand, preserved bodies naturally

Step 2: Before dying pay to be embalmed

•There are several methods of embalming

o1 year’s salary for ancient Egyptians

Step 3: Let the 70 day process begin!

•First embalmers purify the body

oBathe body with water from Nile River

Step 4:Remove the decomposers

•The brain was removed through the nose

oThrow out the brain

•Remove the major organs

oLeave the heart inside

Step 5:Dry out the body

•Liver, lungs, stomach, intestines are washed

•The body is covered in natron salt

oOrgans are packed in natron salt

oLeft covered for 40 days

Step 6:Wrapping the body

•The body was wrapped in linen

oSacred amulets placed between the layers

•Organs were placed in canopic jars

Step 7: The sarcophagus (coffin)

•The sarcophagus was designed to look like the person

oThe pharaoh used gold

•The mummy was placed in the sarcophagus

•The sarcophagus was hidden in the tomb

oBuried with worldly possessions

Step 8: The weighing of the heart

•Before final judgment, the heart must be weighed

oWeighed against the feather of truth

•If scales balance, the person stood before Osiris

•Recited the sacred prayers

oIf successful, the person would pass on to eternity

oIf he/she failed, Ammut devours their soul

Step 9: Burial in Royal Tombs

•Old Kingdom pharaohs buried in pyramids-

•Huge, stone tombs with four triangle-shaped sides that met in a point on top

•Largest pyramid is Khufu’s

•Located near town of Giza

Building the Pyramids

•Original pyramids did NOT have smooth-sides

•Smooth-sided pyramids made around 2700 BC

•Historians unsure how pyramids were built

•May have required up to 100,000 workers

•Government kept records and paid peasants for their work

•Paid with goods NOT money

•Peasants built pyramids

•Moved stones by:

•Floating down Nile River

•Using brick ramps and sleds

Significance of Pyramids

•Pyramid symbol of pharaoh’s power

•Size/Shape symbolize pharaoh’s journey to afterlife

•Egyptians believed if pharaoh controlled controlled everyone’s afterlife

•Pharaoh makes it to afterlife they make it to afterlife

•To ensure pharaoh’s spirit was safe Egyptians wrote spells and hymns

•Spells and hymns together are Pyramid Text